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Q&A: Shane Carwin's high school grad was an episode of What Not to Wear

UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin

Photograph by: Jon Kopaloff
, Getty Images

On Saturday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay-per-view with UFC 131 in Vancouver, where Shane Carwin meets Junior dos Santos in a main event to determine the No. 1 heavyweight contender. On Wednesday, Carwin went 1-on-1 with Postmedia News MMA reporter Dave Deibert, discussing life as a nerd, surviving with two older brothers and his plans for when his daughter starts dating . . .

POSTMEDIA: It’s graduation time around North America for millions of high school kids. Take me back to your 1993 grad at Greeley West High School in Colorado. What colour was your tuxedo and cummerbund? And do you regret your fashion choice when you look back at the pictures?

CARWIN: Oh yeah (laughs). It was baby blue and yellow. Very ’90s.

POSTMEDIA: Was your high school life closer to the angst of Dawson’s Creek, the craziness of American Pie or the drama of 90210?

CARWIN: I would think it was drama, like 90210 ... It was kind of a tornado so every once in a while you were thrown into it and then back out of it.

POSTMEDIA: You were a three-time academic all-American in college, with degrees in mechanical engineering and environmental technology, and you still work full time at an engineering company. I ask this with all due respect: has there ever been a bigger, scarier nerd than you?

CARWIN: (Laughs) It’s funny you say that. We were sitting in the airport. There’s a kid (James Head) fighting (at UFC 131). He’s smarter than me. He’s a petroleum engineer. It kind of goes electrical engineer, chemical, petroleum, then mechanical. If he was a civil engineer, I wouldn’t think so much of him (laughs). But he’s petroleum. I looked at him and thought ‘What are you doing fighting, dude?’ And then I thought to myself, ‘That’s a dumb question. What am I doing fighting?’

POSTMEDIA: Tell me something you love to do that shows the geeky side of Shane Carwin.

CARWIN: On my phone I’m been playing some geek engineer game where I build (things) and see if trains can drive over it.

POSTMEDIA: That’s pretty geeky.

CARWIN: (Laughs).

POSTMEDIA: Greg Maddux says the sound of a home run is two cars crashing. How would you describe the sound of a knockout punch?

CARWIN: Are you giving or receiving?

POSTMEDIA: With you, mostly giving.

CARWIN: (Laughs) I don’t know. It’s not a crash. It’s a smooth feeling. When you hit somebody on the button just right, I want to say you don’t even feel it. You just see them crumble.

POSTMEDIA: How much did having two older brothers prepare you for a fighting career?

CARWIN: I got beat up often. Shawn, the one that’s four years older, used to take it to me all the time. And then I’d go tell Don, who’s seven years older, and Don would take it to Shawn. It was a repetitive cycle that I never won at, actually (laughs) . . . Don’s six-feet tall, probably 255 pounds, Shawn’s 6-foot-2, probably 240. (Carwin is 6-foot-2, 265 pounds.)

POSTMEDIA: What were the grocery bills like for your mom?

CARWIN: We brothers would get in a lot of fights, I can tell you that much. She raised us on our own so there wasn’t a lot. When we got groceries, we’d throw a pounding on them.

POSTMEDIA: In your 12 wins, your average match lasted 81 seconds. What’s the most fun you’ve had outside the cage in that amount of time?

CARWIN: (Laughs) Probably surfing, doing some wakesurfing behind the boat. I’m getting better at it. I wouldn’t say I’m good at it but I’m getting better.

POSTMEDIA: I’m 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, and I know when I’m snowboarding, the wipeouts are spectacular with my long, gangly limbs. At your size, when you go down in the water, is it quite the sight?

CARWIN: Surfing, you’re only doing about nine miles per hour so it’s not too bad. But when I’m on the wakeboard, it’s usually something to see. It’s pretty ugly. That’s kind of why I went to surfing.

POSTMEDIA: You’re a veteran of the promotional side of things by now, but when you first started with UFC, did you ever practice your mean face in the mirror before your photo and video shoots?

CARWIN: (Laughs) Nah, I think my face is probably ugly enough that I didn’t have to practice.

POSTMEDIA: In 1998, you were a linebacker in the college Senior Bowl and participated in the NFL combine for top draft prospects. In your playing days, what was the dirtiest thing you saw in a pileup?

CARWIN: Guys are punching each other down there on the bottom, they’re grabbing ankles, trying to roll ankles. There’s lot of dirty things that go on in a pileup.

POSTMEDIA: Chuck Liddell was on Dancing with the Stars. Tito Ortiz was on Celebrity Apprentice. What reality show would you most like to appear on?

CARWIN: My wife and family want to try to get me on Dancing with the Stars. They want me to shake my ghetto booty . . . I got some pretty slick moves. Maybe I’ll break them out in the cage. (Carwin’s wife, Lani, is laughing and shaking her head: “They’re not slick moves.”)

POSTMEDIA: When your son, Kamden, plays the UFC Undisputed video game, does he play as you or another fighter?

CARWIN: I think he plays it as me when I’m down there with him. When I’m gone, I think he trades off and plays as other guys.

POSTMEDIA: He doesn’t want to hurt your feelings.

CARWIN: He’s sensitive to dad (laughs).

POSTMEDIA: When your daughter, Alexis, starts dating, are you going to have your fights playing on the TV when the boy comes by, just to remind him what you did for a living?

CARWIN: I already have a plan for this. When my daughter starts dating, I’m going to take that boy’s dad out on a date that night . . . I can’t do nothing to the boy but I can do something to his dad (laughs).

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